“What difference does it make being a listed company?” Banking Day asked the top management of Liberty Financial yesterday.

“In some ways not at all,” James Boyle, the managing director said.

“The strategy’s been consistent. The team’s been consistent.”

Liberty has been less consistent over its nearly two years on the ASX boards at delivering against plans, or stretch targets.

Statutory net profit over the year to June 2022 increased to A$219.3 million from $185.4 million, a respectable rise.

But underlying profit – a key driver of bonuses for Boyle and his chief financial officer and also founder and board member Sherman Ma – crawled to $231.1 million from $226.1 million last year.

Financial targets carry a 60 per cent weighting at Liberty. Set an underlying profit target of $244 million by the board, Boyle’s team missed by $13 million.

The upside on the bonus scorecard was that Liberty outperformed on net promoter scores and its market share in “specialty” – meaning non-conforming home loans, motor finance and commercial finance.

Ramping up efforts in asset finance was a theme common to the market briefings undertaken by AFG and Resimac last week, and within Liberty’s results lie clues as to why.

Secured finance represents 29 per cent of lending for Liberty, 30 per cent of net revenue and 43 per cent of earnings.

Liberty reported a six per cent rise in financial assets over the year to $12.9 billion, a rise in line with system but tame in comparison with peers.

It reported 36 per cent growth in new loans to $5.6 billion at the same time as reporting a stable net interest margin of 3.08 per cent, in contrast to industry margin decline. 

Its return on equity lifted a tad to 20.4 per cent from 20.0 per cent.

Boyle was unable to shed any new light on foreshadowed takeover bid by New Zealand-based Heartland for Avenue Bank, in which Liberty holds a 20 per cent stake.

“Heartland have come into Avenue with existing shareholders …  no decisions have been made.”